Back to the F-104. Kelly Johnson designed it on his own, after talking to
the pilots in Korea, who badly wanted to fly higher and faster.
So Kelly Johnson designed an airplane that flew ridiculously high and
fast. But it didn't do anything else very well.
Lesson here: if you listen to the customer, you can get badly burned if
you deliver what he asks. You need to know your customer's business
better than he does. Deliver what he needs - in the future. This is not
easy to do. I don't know anyone in Canada that knows how to do that.
Back to the F-104. High altitude day interceptor. Great. But you thought
your management wanted you to do dumb things. Wait until you hear
this:
Canadian politicans wanted to use the F-104 as a low-altitude, high
speed all weather nuclear bomber.
This has a lot of mistakes in it, but:
https://theavgeeks.com/2019/02/11/canad ... 1964-1972/
What a stupid fucking idea. The F-105 would have been a far better choice.
The F-111 would have been fabulous. Hell, even the F-4 would have been
a better choice - at least it has two guys (and two engines).
But a certain CEPE weapons test pilot - that TC thinks is a really shitty stick -
said it could be done.
Everyone laughed. So Dear Old Dad would take up the visiting Admirals and
Generals (I have some great photos, but you four bars probably wouldn't like
them) in a D and show them how to do an all-weather low-altitude high
speed nuclear bomb run, under the hood. I remember one Admiral said, Don't
bother with the hood, it's snowing and we have zero vis.
Aerobatics in cloud. Anyone? Anyone?
What a shitty pilot he was, according to TC.
Anyone have Jim Pfaff's contact info? Twenty years ago he lied and said that
in addition to being a shitty stick, Dear Old Dad had a weak ticker, ready to expire.
What bullshit. Dear Old Dad aced the Bruce Protocol treadmill (12.5 METS) when
he was 70, a lifetime cyclist. He used to travel to Europe and ride the mountains
ahead of the Tour, for fun. A "weak heart" my fucking ass. You have probably
never heard of Steve Podborski, but he was an Olympic athlete and he and Dear
Old Dad used to ride the mountains in Europe together. I am told Dear Old Dad
could take Steve going up the hill, but no one passed Steve going downhill. Fearless.
Well, on Sunday Dear Old Dad turned 90. Strong as a horse and mean as a mule,
rides the stationary bike for an hour every day. It would be nice for Jim to give him
a call and tell him that he should have died many years ago.
A "weak heart" my fucking ass. And a shitty stick, according to TC. Well, this is
what a shitty stick looks like at age 70:
TC may have thought he was a shitty stick, but Curtis Pitts thought he flew good.
